This chapter cannot help but be a patchwork of quotations from often
unreliable sources, as there is very little to go on for this early
phase in the O.T.O. phenomenon, apart from 'official' material produced
by Theodor Reuss and John Yarker, and Nazi propaganda written years
after the events. Rather than try to construct a connected narrative
from these documents, I have thought it better to let them speak for
themselves. See also the detailed documentation on Carl Kellner.

On Carl Kellner: Excerpt from the 1965 edition of "Österreichisches
Biographisches Lexikon 1815-1950":

"KELLNER, Karl. Chemist and industrialist, born Vienna 1.9.1851;
died Vienna 7.6.1905. Studied in Vienna and Paris. While working at a
private laboratory in Vienna by the age of 22 he had already made
certain crucial observations; after his entry into Baron Hector von
Ritter-Zahony's factory (at Podgora, near Görz) in 1876, these findings
eventuated in the Ritter-Kellner Sulphite-Cellulose process, which was
soon in use in many paper-mills [...] (Electro-chemical
bleaching processes) [...] The Castner-Kellner Alkali Company
built in England what was then the largest plant for chlor-alkaline
electrolysis in the world [...] Kellner occupied himself with
technical inventions [...] among which were discoveries in spun
fibres, electrical lighting, photography, synthetic gem-stones,
etc."
(Text provided by Dr. Walter, in Volume III, p.290)

On Carl Kellner: Jean Paar: White and Black Magic

"On the 7th of June there died in Vienna one of the better-known
figures in the wider worlds of science and industry, Doctor Karl K; it
was a sudden death, occurring only six months after one of his
assistants met the same fate. Dr. K was possessed of a lively and
ingenious mind, from which emerged many inventions, among which the
Sulphite-Cellulose process takes pride of place. He made his fortune,
and was able to extend his enquiries in ever widening circles, until
eventually he fetched up in the field of Black Magic. Initially he took
instruction from the Arab Soliman ben Aisha, from whom he learnt how to
make your eyes pop out of your head, and how to pierce your tongue.
Then he fell into the company of the Indian Bheema Sena Pratapa, from
whom he learnt the art of putting oneself into a state of trance, in
which condition many Fakirs have had themselves buried alive. Finally
he devoted himself under the Indian Sri Mahatma Agamya Guru
Paramahamsa, to the deepest secrets of Hatha Yoga. [1]
Consequently he attracted to himself a horde of infernal spirits which he could not
escape, and which were ultimately his ruination. He was haunted in his
laboratory by quite incredible ghostly manifestations, and the
unfortunate man discovered that despite being fully conscious of his
deeds, he no longer had the strength to escape their results.
In one of his letters to Dr. Franz Hartmann, he wrote: 'I fear the
guardian legions, yet they open the knowledge of the subject'.
Six months after his laboratory assistant died suddenly, he himself
fell prey to a mysterious illness, which no doctor was able to
diagnose. He shrank to a skeleton, and died an even more puzzling death
after he had been to Egypt, from where he returned in a stretcher,
after making a slight recovery."
J. Paar, Berlin 1912.
Paar became a supporter of the Nazi Ludendorff, and 24 years afterwards
published more on Kellner under a pseudonym — re the many factual
errors and hostile misinterpretations: see my articles

On Carl Kellner: S. Ipares: 'Secret World Power'

"Blavatsky's pupil and founder of the 'International Theosophical
Fraternization', Dr. Franz Hartmann (33°, 90°, and 95°), belonged to
the 'Order of Ancient and True Rosicrucians' as 'Frater Emanuel', while
Dr. Rudolf Steiner was initiated into a separate branch of the Order,
the O.T.O. (Ordo Templi Orientis, Order of Oriental Templars) working
97 (=33) degrees [wrong]. This Order,
which we accuse of being the darkest chapter among modern secret
societies, was the Masonic creation of Dr. Karl Kellner (1851-1905)
[wrong: the O.T.O. was founded after Kellner's death], a
prominent Austrian inventor and chemist. The young Kellner, who at
barely 22 years of age had made a name for himself in the scientific
world through his work, soon fell into an addiction to occultism, and
was introduced to Freemasonic groups. In 1887 he allied himself with
the Theosophical Society, and was bedecked with high offices and
honours in international Masonry. As an initiate he was part of the
Freemasonic world conspiracy plan, and the occult entrapment of
Germany, which did not reveal its political nature until 1902, in which
year, on the 17th of January, Steiner himself was read into [sic] the
Theosophical Society...
Dr. Kellner's letters give a shocking picture of someone in the
shadowy realm of occult brotherhoods, and his training therein is
revealed as a battle for the human soul plain and simple. One of his
statements illuminateshis desperate state: 'I have finally found what I
have spent my whole life striving towards — I perform my exercises, I
ascend a little way; but then I fall from a great height. I fear the
guardian legions.' [2]
Dr. Franz Hartmann believed that Dr. Kellner's progress in occultism
was "like Icarus, whose myth tells that he tried to fly to the sun on
wings of wax — but the wings melted, and he fell."
When these 'guardian legions' of the West recognized that Dr. Kellner with
his own weapons and those of the Indian secret societies — or whatever
select alliances he made before his death — intended to annihilate
them, while spinning an ever thicker web of doom over Europe, exposing
the Austrian and German public to damaging cosmopolitan influences,
they managed to strik Kellner 'dumb' at the right moment.
Next they struck terror into Kellner associates — it was their
favourite method — by means of accidents, and then through the death of his
assistant, a perfectly healthy young man, who suddenly dropped dead on
the laboratory floor, without any cause that the doctor could find in
his post-mortem. Then Kellner himself fell victim to an utterly
mysterious illness, for which the doctors could find no explanation,
and which put him in the sick-room for six months. Persistant
weight-loss, lameness in the limbs, ad complete numbness were the
symptoms of this illness, for which he sought relief in the sun of
Egypt. From there, Dr. Kellner returned to Vienna, the city of his
birth, on June 6th 1905, and died after a visit to the 'alchemical'
chamber of his laboratory the following night. The unseen hand of the
guardian legions had performed their fearsome and dangerous task, sent
from the 'innermost' East, extinguishing a lamp of Rosicrucianism, and
sending the O.T.O. down a road where none of its succeeding Grand
Masters General achieved any honour."
S. Ipares, Münich 1936.

On Carl Kellner: Jubilee Number of the "Oriflamme", 1912

Theodor Reuss:
"The spiritual Father of the newly-organised Oriental Order of Templars
was the late Sovereign Honoured Grand Master-General in Germany and
Great Britain, Bro.·. Dr. Carl Kellner, 33°, 90°, 96°, X°. On his
numerous and extensive journeys in Europe, America, and Asia Minor he
came into contact with an organisation called 'The Hermetic Brotherhood
of Light'. The influences that were transmitted through his contact
with this organisation, (allied with others, which will not be detailed
here under these circumstances), engendered in Bro.·. Kellner the wish
to found a species of 'Academica Masonica' in which Brothers might be
facilitated in seeking acquaintance with all existing Masonic.·.Degrees
and Systems. In the year 1895 Bro.·. Kellner had long conversations
with Bro.·. Reuss in Berlin, so that these ideas might become a
practical proposition. In the course of these conversations Bro.·.
Reuss told Bro.·. Kellner for the first time of the aforementioned
title of 'Academica Masonica', and gave the justification and basis for
adopting the designation 'Oriental Templar'. These negotiations
completed, 1895 however brought few positive results; at that point
Bro.·. Reuss was preoccupied with his reactivated Order of Illuminati,
but as soon as Bro... Reuss appointed more active persons [Leopold
Engel] to leading positions, Bro. Kellner fell out of sympathy with them [that
January, 'Number 0' of the Oriflamme appeared].
As by July 1902 the final split between Bro.·. Reuss and his student
Leopold E[ngel] had become known, Bro.·. Kellner immediately put
himself into close association with Bro.·. Reuss, and brought about the
acquisition of a licence for the introduction of the Rites of Memphis
and Misraim into Germany, since Bro.·. Kellner held sole rights to
these Rites with their respective degrees of 90th & 95th, as most
suitable to his idea of introducing a 'kind of' Masonic Academy. The
Rosicrucian, esoteric teachings of the 'Hermetic Brotherhood of Light'
would be reserved for the few initiates of its occult 'Inner Circle'.
The grades of knowledge of this inner initiatory circle ran parallel to
the highest degrees of the Memphis-Misraim Rite, and these 'Initiates'
comprised the root of the Order of Oriental Templars.
No-one may become an 'Initiate' of the O.T.O. who has not first
received the three Craft degrees of Freemasonry."
Caption to a photograph of Kellner dating from 1896: "Recieved into
the Order of Freemasonry in the 'Humanitas' Lodge, Or.·.Neuhäusl."
[3]. Written by Theodor Reuss, Berlin and London, 1912.

On Carl Kellner: "Oriflamme" of July 1914

Regarding a quote from A.P. Eberhardt's "Winkellogen Deutschlands"
[English translation:
On German Irregular Lodges], (Leipzig, 1914), Theodor Reuss
wrote: "Members challenged Reuss, particularly the well-known occultist and
Freemason of Vienna Dr. Kellner, challenged him to produce the licence
of a recognised association for them!
Dr. Karl Kellner was never a member of the Swedenborg Rite or belonged
to any of the Masonic lodges founded by me between 1900 and 1902.
Neither was Dr. Karl Kellner a member of the Illuminati-Order
re-activated by me, so long as Leopold Engel was associated with it in
any manner whatever. Nor was Dr. Karl Kellner ever in a position to
claim membership of the Swedenborg Rite.
I was certainly associated with, and a friend of Dr. Karl Kellner long
before the Sovereign Sanctuary of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of
Masonry appeared in 1902; since when in agreement with him (after the
separation of Leopold Engels from the circle of my colleagues) a
Warrant (licence) was requested from John Yarker of Manchester in
August 1902, which was then accepted."
(Theodor Reuss, Berlin and London, 1914).

Constitution, Statutes, and Precedents of the Grand Orient of the
Ancient and Accepted Scottish 33° Freemasons, and the Sovereign
Sanctuary of the Ancient and Primitive Rite 95° of Memphis and Misraim,
in and for Germany in the Valley of Berlin, also of the Supreme Council
and Grand Council of the Scottish Chapter of Rose Croix, including
their subordinate Chapters and Symbolic Lodges (Craft Lodges).

"Patron: Sovereign Honoured Grand-Master General for Germany, and
Sovereign Grand Commander, A. & A. 33°, for Germany, Great Britain, and
Ireland; Br... Dr. Carl Kellner, of the Kellner-Partington Co. Ltd.,
the Castner-Kellner Alkali Co Ltd., of Manchester, Barrow-in-Furness,
Runcorn, Borregaard (Norway), St. John (Canada), Hallein near Salzburg,
member of the Royal Industrial Council in Vienna, etc."
(Berlin, 1903).

"Karl Theodor Reuss was born [on June] 1855 in Augsburg. He
attended the Gymnasium, was apprenticed as a druggist but soon got an education
as a professional opera singer. As such he contacted [in 1883]
Richard Wagner and his protector King Ludwig II of
Bavaria. [Reuss claimed to have taken part in Angelo
Neumann's English tour in 1882 and to have sung the role of the
god "Donner" in "Das Rheingold" and to have subsequently performed at
Amsterdam, Munich and Quedlinburg.]
Suddenly his career came to an end when Reuss lost his voice
(there was a rumour that he had syphilis). As regular
correspondent of several major newspapers he went to London where.
[on 9 November 1876] he was initiated in the German-speaking
"Pilger-Loge" Nr. 238 [and expelled on 1 October 1881 maybe
because he had not paid his subscription. It is possible that he
had been proposed for membership by Heinrich Klein, a dealer in
sheet music, who had become a joining member in
1872 and was Director of Ceremonies in 1872-3. He was to become
involved in Reuss's later masonic activities.]
In 1878 he was sent by the "Times" (London) [?] as a
well-paid war-reporter to the Balkans and in 1882 he went to Bosnia and
Herzegovina.
In 1880 Reuss spent a longer period in his home country, in
Munich. Together with descendants of the "Order of
the Illuminati" he attempted a revival of this anti-government order originally
founded by Professor Adam Weishaupt of Ingolstadt.
We find Reuss again in the year 1885 in London, in the executive
committee of the anarchist "Socialist League."
[His first] pamphlet, "The Matrimonial Question", was not warmly
received. (4) On May 10 he was expelled from the "Socialist
League" because of defamatory actions.
The unveiling of his activities as a spy for Germany through the
anarchists of London forced the traitor to leave England.
In 1888 Reuss re-appeared in Berlin and joined the actor Leopold
Engel in order to re-found the "Order of the Illuminati".
[An article by Reuss on "Pranatherapie"
can be found in the June 1894 issue of the occult periodical "Sphinx". It was published
under the pseudonym "Theodor Regens" and described how he
had cured an old lady's insomnia by applying his hands to her
head.]
The German Grand Lodge firstly ignored Reuss and his allies. Only
when Reuss in 1900 propagated his own "Johannislogen" under his
business enterprise "Grosse Freimaurerloge fuer Deutschland" did
the "most honorable Grandmasters" become furious against the
unfair competitor. As a result, in 1901 Leopold Engel separated
from Reuss, accusing him of fraud. The Majority of the members of
the "Order of the Illuminati" stayed with Reuss, while Engel tried
to run his "Weltbund der Illuminaten" independently from all the other Grand Lodge offices.
[The ex-mason and collector of masonic titles John Yarker was willing to
sell Reuss a warrant for the Antient and
Primitive Rite of Memphis and Misraim, also for the
Cerneau (New York, 1807) version of the Ancient and Accepted Rite. In
connection with his prospective "high grade" operation Reuss
recruited two gentlemen who had not previously been associated
with his masonic manoeuvres in Germany. They were his old friend
Heinrich Klein and Dr Franz Hartmann. In order to give them the
necessary status in or about September 1902 Yarker appointed all
three of them to high office in his Sovereign Sanctuary, the body
which ostensibly controlled all the variegated high-grade rites
in his possession. The warrant, dated 24 September, followed
immediately. It authorized Reuss (as Sovereign Grand Master
General), Hartmann (as Grand Administrator General) and Klein (as
Grand Keeper of the Golden Book) to establish a Sovereign
Sanctuary in Berlin.]
Within [the Ancient and Primitive Scottish Rite and
Memphis-Misraim] Reuss collected the most reliable
members into one particular group: the Order of the Oriental
Templars (O.T.O.).
One can detect the spiriti of the [pertinent] Church from what
is written in one of their brochures. "The Isrealites would not have
to give up a lot in order to belong to us. The Gnostic Church
supports the parliamentary-liberal republic." (Le Reveil des
Albigeois, No. 1, 1900) [5]

The first head [of the O.T.O. ?] was not Reuss, but
the Vienna manufacturer Dr. Karl [sic] Kellner. [Carl Kellner was Austrian paper chemist and industrialist who had profitably exploited a number
of patents connected with paper-making processes. He was one of
the few contemporary Europeans with a detailed knowledge of yoga
theories and techniques and in 1896 distributed a
privately-printed paper on "Yoga: a summary of its
psycho-physiological connections" to those who attended the Third
International Congress for Psychology held at Munich in 1896.

In "Was ist Okkultismus und wie erlangt man okkulte Kräfte?",
published under the pseudonym "Hans Merlin" at
Berlin in 1903, Reuss referred to his friendship with Madame
Blavatsky and mentioned that he had been present at a memorial
ceremony at her house a few days after her death
in May 1891. As an "occultist" Reuss seems to have been
mainly interested in yoga and the theoretical connections
between certain chakras and sexuality.]
In 1905 Reuss was living in Hamburg. In the summer of 1906 [24
June [6]] he went to Munich in order to initiate some "Novizen" in
the secrets of the O.T.O. These "Novizen" were so disgusted by these
"revelations" [the mutual touchings of the phalli as yoga-
meditation] [7] that they alerted to the police to arrest the
libertine Reuss, who only just escaped arrest while dining in the
hotel "Metropol", and fled to his crony, John Yarker in England.
In Germany, sorting out the business of the Order became rather
complicated after General Grandmaster Reuss' ignominious retreat.
Although Herr A.P. Eberhardt of Leipzig had
already received the
leadership of the "Johannislogen" on 11 November 1906, Reuss kept
the higher degrees for himself until 1909. Now he transferred
authority to his most faithful squire, Dr. Carl Lauer of
Ludwigshafen [who published the "Andreas-Blaetter" from
1908]. [8]
Only the highest floor of his headquarters, Memphis-Misraim or
O.T.O., was still rentable.

A suitable tenant was soon found in Doctor Rudolf Steiner, who acquired
the complete form in the winter of 1906/07 for the trifling sum of 1500
Marks. Steiner himself always told his faithful that the highest degree
of his masonic system should be only the lowest degree of another
occult system on whose peak was a Rex summus maximus. [9]
[Ed.: This is nonsense. Steiner NEVER was member of the O.T.O.. See
documents in "Der Grosse Theodor Reuss Reader",

In order to support himself in London, Reuss founded there a "High
School of Hermetic Sciences." At the end of 1913 he settled in
Paris.
Six months after Reuss settled down in Basel, war broke out.
After the war, Reuss stayed another two years in Basel
[Der Judenkenner now mentions E.T.
Kurtzahn, a leading member of the Gnostic Church, in connection with Reuss since
1922]. [The events between 1916 and 1920 are dealt with in: "Consider the O.T.O. non existant"].
Reuss removed his residence to Munich where he became an employee
of the municipal travel agency. He still held his O.T.O.
meetings [for example, with Arnoldo Krumm-Heller].
Krumm-Heller nowadays [1936] still spreads his cancer as an
agent in Rosicrucian societies in Brazil. We beg
all our friends to watch his activities closely and to report to us.
Brooding over new plans to stultify Aryan scientists, Reuss died
in 1923 in his 68th year in Munich."

Some of this is new to me. The 'Judenkenner' was, of course fed by
the Nazis who had seized in 1934 [?] the whole of the Archives of
Secret Societes, Lodges, Masons. etc. etc. and occult organisations. On top of
that I presume that they got hold of people like Birven,
Schlag and others, even Jesuits, who have a grudge
against anything that is not of the standard Christian or masonic
approved tradition. In the case of Birven I know that he has a
tremendous literature of the background of O.T.O. etc. and was in touch
with French leading circles. He was called to the Gestapo to testify
for questioning, but I am sure not seriously molested. He and Traenker threw
it all on me, the wicked Germer. B. may, to save his skin, have
supplied the Gestapo with additional information, not usually found in
literature.

Ed. Koenig: These texts, and pieces in Reuss's "Oriflamme" between July
and December 1906, had seemed to be the sole foundations for any would-be
biographers of Reuss. There is however a long-neglected article called
'Les Missionaires du Gnosticisme' [10] by Leslie Fry ('Paquita
Shishmarev'), which was published in the "Revue Internationale des
Sociétés Secrètes"; but unfortunately it does not add any decisive
facts to the present study.

Der Judenkenner was published every week for almost two years
during 1935-1936. Heydrich ordered the Security Service (SD), and the
Secret Police (Gestapo) to seize documents from, and suppress, occult
organisations on 20th July 1937, and the freemasonic lodges on 23rd
April 1938. Although it is certain that the SD and Gestapo did acquire
important documents before these dates, there is the question whether
they really acquired the most interesting information until after the
suppression dates. For this reason, Ulrich Fleischauer's vast sources
for Der Judenkenner remain a mystery, as does the nature of
Heydrich's and Dr Francis Six's relationship with Fleischauer.
Fleischauer later worked for Alfred Rosenberg, after Heydrich closed
down Der Judenkenner in late 1936 (reason unknown). [11]

"First Deed of Foundation: [the] Secret Areopagus of the
Order of Illuminati... has resolved from January 1900, by means of its
Order rights, legitimately acquired from the founder of the Order of
Illuminati Adam Weishaupt, [12] to found Lodges of Freemasons, whenever
it shall have need. To this end, the secret Areopagus herewith confers
membership of its Order upon Brother Theodor Reuss... the sole right to
found and consecrate Lodges of Freemasons of the Scottish Rite of
Ancient and Accepted Masons... Dresden, the 1st of Dimeh 1900...
Theodor Reuss, Leopold Engel..."
[Wording according to the "Oriflamme" of July 1914 [13]. The licence
was issued on the 6th of May 1901 according to Reuss.]

"Martinist Order. Theodor Reuss — by these presents Brother Theodor
Reuss of Berlin is authorised to represent the ORDER under the title
of: Inspector General (I.M.) with his seat at Berlin... 24th of June
1901 ... Papus."[14]
[Trancsribed from the original. In the summer of 1901 'Papus' was in
Russia, where he possibly installed the Czar as the head of a Martinist
lodge [15].]

"The Swedenborg Rite of Masonry. The Supreme Grand Lodge and Tempel
of Great Britain and Irteland. To All Whom it may concern! Greetings! Be
it known by these Presents, that our worthy Brother Theodor Reuss a
Master Mason who has signed his name in the Margins hereof, was duly
elevated on the 25th day of July AD 1901 [...] to the Degrees of
Enlightened Sublime and Perfect Freemason in the Emanuel Lodge and
Temple No. 1 of London (England) [...] 26th July AD 1901
[...] William Wynn Westcott. [original in P.R. Koenig:
"Materialien zum OTO", ARW, Bavaria 1994]

"From the East of the Supreme Grand Council of the Sovereign Grand
Inspector General of the 33rd and last Degree of the Ancient and
Accepted Rite of Freemasonry in and for Great Britain & Ireland... Know
Ye that we the undersigned Sovereign Grand Inspector General do hereby
certify, acknowledge and proclaim, our Ill. Brother Theodor Reuss of
Berlin to be an Expert Master Mason, Secret Master, Perfect Master,
[...] Grand Elect Knight Kadosh, 30°, Grand Inquisitor Commander,
31°, Prince of the Royal Secret, and a Sov. Gd. Inspector Gen. 33°
[...] Signed and delievered by us Sovereign Grand Inspector
General of the Thirty-third and last Degree with the Seal of our said
Supreme Council affixed in the Valley of Manchester this [...]
24th day of September A.D.1902. John Yarker 33°..."
Note: this is a transcription of the original. Aleister Crowley
received a document from John Yarker that is identical in almost every
word, on the 29th of November 1910. Issued on exactly the same day in
1902, there is a supposed licence for Reuss from Yarker for which no
original has been brought to light; only transcriptions have been
found:
"We [...] do [...] issue.. this our Warrant empowering
our Illustrious and Enlightened Brothers: Theodor Reuss 33.° 90.° 96.°
to act as Most Illustrious Sovereign Grand Master General, Franz
Hartmann 33.° 90.° 95.°, Thrice Illustrious Grand Administrator General
[...] with power to oppoint [sic] the other necessary
officers of a Sovereign Sanctuary etc. to be holden in the Valley of
Berlin or other German city, aforesaid by the name and title of the
Sovereign Sanctuary 33.°-95.° in and for the Empire of Germany
[...] [here follows the permit to establish lodges, chapters, etc.,
and to confer all degrees] 24th day of Sept. 1902 E.V [...]
John Yarker 33.° 90.° 96.° Gr. Master Gen. _ad vitam_..." [18]
The notes to the German version of this charter cite other degrees in
"The Cerneau (New York 1807) Rite" [19]: Theodor Reuss: 33°, 90°,
95°: Franz Hartmann 33°, 90°, 96°. The "Constitution, Statutes, and
Precedents" [20] admittedly confer the same degrees, but leave
Hartmann's pompous title out.

"33° and last degree SUPREME COUNCIL [...] Sovereign Grand
Inspector General — Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite Masonry sitting
in the Valley of New York, where abideth Peace, Tolerance and Truth:
From the Grand Orient of HIERODOMON [in Greek characters], at
New York, in the State of New York, near the B.B. and under the C.C. of
that Zenith, which answers unto 40° 42' N. Lat. I, Max Scheuer 33° by
the authority in me vested as Most Puissant Sovereign Grand Commander,
do appoint the Most Illustrious Brother Theodor Reuss Sovereign Grand
Inspector General, Thirty-third degree, Deputy as Representative of the
Supreme Council of the United States of America, its territories and
dependencies, to the Supreme Council of the Grand Orient of Germany,
Thirty-third degree Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite [...]
this twenty-first day of Sivan A.M. 1663. Max Scheuer
33°..."
[Transcribed from the original.]

"In the names of the Grand Orient of the Scottish Rite and the Rite
of Misraim and Memphis [...] Herewith it is declared that the
Most Honoured and Most Worthy Brother JOHN YARKER, 33°, 90°, 96°,
Sovereign Grand Master General ad. vit. of the Antient and Primitif
Rite of Masonry of the Scottish Rite, Ancien et Accepté 33° (Cerneau
New York 1807), and the Oriental (Egyptian) Rite of Misraim in and for
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, by virtue of his
Offices and by reason of his Licence of the Sovereign Grand Orient de
France of the 21st of July 1862 [illegible] of the rights
delivered by M[ost] Ill[ustrious] Sovereign Grand Master
General of America Brother Harry J. Seymour to the [illegible]
Brothers Theodor Reuss, 33°, 96°, Dr. Franz Hartmann, 33°, 95°,
Heinrich Klein, 33°, 95° and their associated Brethren, has granted a
Licence to constitute a Sovereign Sanctuary for the German Empire, to
work the complete degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite
33°, the Oriental Rite of Misraim 90°, and the Rite of Memphis 95°,
from the first to the 33° (90°-95°) and last degree, and to institute
and conduct symbolic Lodges, Chapters, Senates, Councils and Grand
Councils in Germany [...] [here follows the foundation of the
'Phoenix of Truth' Orient in Hamburg.] In confirmtion of which the
present certificate is prepared, sealed, and signed... First day of the
Month of July 1904 E.V. John Yarker 33° 90° 96° G.M.G. of Gr. Britain +
Ireland Theodor Reuss 33° 90° 96° Grand Master General for the German
Reich ad Vitam..."
[transcript from a photocopy of the original. Some say that this paper
is a forgery made in the 1970s by a newly founded MM-lodge]

An additional version of a charter granted to Reuss especially for
establishing MM lodges was published as the text of a 'Vademecum for
Seekers of Light' by the Symbolic Grand Lodge of the Scottish Rite in
Germany: "Herewith it is declared that [...] John Yarker, 33°, 90°,
96°, Sovereign Grand Master General ad vitam of the Antient and
Primitive Rite of Masonry, the Scottish Rite, Ancien et Accepté 33°
(Cerneau-New York 1807) and the Oriental (Egyptian) Rite of Misraim
[...] by reason of a Licence of the Sovereign Grand Orient de
France of the 21st of July 1862 [...] of the rights delivered by
Harry J. Seymour to the Most Honoured Brethren Theodor Reuss 33° 96°
etc., has granted a Licence to constitute a Sovereign Sanctuary for the
German Empire [...] 24th day of the month of June 1905."
On page 108 of Eberhardt's "Winkellogen Deutschlands" this licence of
1905 is also printed, with the difference that straight after "Theodor
Reuss 33° 96° etc.," the names of Franz Hartmann and Heinrich Klein
(died June 26th 1913), are inserted. This begs the question of whether
the authors could have exhibited any original document.

"Edict: We, Albert Karl Theodor Reuss, 33.°, 90.°, 96.°, Sovereign
Grand Master General ad Vitam of the Orders of the United Rites of
Scottish, Memphis and Misraim Freemasons in and for the German Reich,
Sovereign Grand Commander General, Absolute Grand Sovereign, Sovereign
Pontiff, Sovereign Master of the Oriental Templar Freemasons, Supreme
Magus Soc. Frat. R.C.S. 33.°, Termaximus Regens etc., etc., do hereby
make known [that Our] three Freemasonic Rites are separated from
each other, and the three Rites are raised up as three independant
Freemasonic institutions.
From the 24th of July 1907 E.V. there will subsist under Our highest
jurisdiction in Germany:
The Highest Council of the Scottish, Ancient and Accepted 33° Rite for
the German Empire.
The Grand Council General (90°) of the Egyptian Rite of Mizraim.
The Sovereign Sanctuary (95°) of the Ancient and Primitive Rite of
Memphis..." Theodor Reuss, 10th of September 1906. [21]

On the 33° Rite:"Through Bro. Reuss were constituted Our Symbolic Grand Lodge on the
24th of June 1905, and the Highest Grand Council on the 20th of
November 1906. The Foundation of the Grand Chapter, dated on the 24th
of September 1907."
Carl Lauer [22].

Because Spencer Lewis (1883–1939) (leader of the A.M.O.R.C.) threatened Theodor Reuss (1855–1923) (founder of the O.T.O., in 1906) that A.M.O.R.C. would stop paying its O.T.O. subscriptions if Aleister Crowley remained a member of the O.T.O.; and because Crowley was upset at Reuss granting (on 13th June, 1921 Charles S. Jones the highest U.S. degree (the X°), in the autumn of 1921, Reuss distanced himself from Crowley, turning towards the A.M.O.R.C. and to Arnoldo Krumm-Heller’s Rosicrucian organisation, the Fraternitas Rosicruciana Antiqua (F.R.A.). After receiving his honorary diploma from Reuss, Lewis sent a telegram, dated 24th August, 1921, asking “What connection has Crowley with your organization.” To which Reuss replied “Dissolved.” In October, 1921, Reuss informed Lewis that he had cut the O.T.O. connection between Reuss and Crowley, adding that whatever Crowley might happen to do about it in the U.S.A. was now his own business and no longer any concern of the O.T.O.. On 9th November, 1921, Reuss wrote to Crowley: “the ‘O.T.O.’ is not in any way an annex or even in any way connected with the ‘AA’ [Crowley’s Argenteum Astrum, A.·. A.·.] and [...] the Teachings of these Two independent Bodies must rigorously be kept separate and distinct.” To which Crowley replied (on 23rd November, 1921) that it was his “will to be O.H.O. and Frater Superior of the Order and avail myself of your abdication — to proclaim myself as such.” Several days later, on 27th November, 1921, Crowley noted in his diary: “I have proclaimed myself O.H.O. [Outer Head of the Order] Frater Superior of the Order of Oriental Templars.”

Regarding Aleister Crowley's antidemocratic, racist and misanthropic writings, followers point out: "The reason [...] aspects of Thelema are omitted [in public discussion] indicates the actual problem with presenting Thelema as a religion and attempting to get Thelema sanctioned by the government or approved by the public: Thelema is ultimately in contrast to and transgressive of normative society. Thelema rejects the morals and values of normative society and acts to transgress and violate these norms. From the inclusion of intoxicants in ritual, to the positive view of sexuality, which frequently is seen as promoting promiscuity, to the pro–authoritarian and Nietzschian aspects of Thelema, normative society has much to reject in Thelema and conversely, Thelema encourages its adherents to reject most aspects of normative society.". See The Templar's Reich.

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